Shares of Tesla Motors Inc., maker of electric cars, have plummeted in recent weeks, and I can think of a lot of reasons why.

Let’s see: Its stock is overvalued; the company is not profitable; it is one of the most shorted stocks on Wall Street; and it must compete against dozens of well-established automakers.

Oh, and did I mention that almost all startup auto companies fail? (Remember DeLorean?)

I say all that to say this: I’m just itching to buy me some shares of Tesla, not because I think it’s a good investment — it isn’t — but because Tesla CEO Elon Musk is trying to stick it to the powerful and politically connected auto dealerships.

That’s right. He wants to sell his cars directly to the public from his own manufacturer showrooms rather than going through franchised dealers or middle men. Many of you may not know this, but in Texas and three other states it is basically illegal to buy a car from Tesla.

Texas allows only franchised dealers to sell cars, not manufacturers. A customer can walk into a Tesla showroom in Austin and look at the Model S, but they can’t test drive it, discuss price or buy the darn thing. They must travel to another state or go home and order it online.

That’s right, the Texas Automobile Dealers Association would much prefer that you continue to haggle with unctuous car dealers like you were buying chickens from a Bangkok street vendor. Maybe that was a little harsh, but I’ve been worked over one too many times by car salespeople.

Ganging up

Last year, Texas dealers garnered enough support in the Texas Legislature to easily defeat Tesla’s effort to sell directly to consumers. New Jersey just recently joined Texas, Arizona and Maryland in making it illegal to buy a Tesla from Tesla.

After the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission took that action, Musk said in a blog posting that the franchise laws were never intended to prevent a new company like Tesla, which has no franchisees, from selling directly to consumers. Further, Musk believes it’s next to impossible for a startup auto company to succeed by selling through franchised dealers.

“Dealers have a fundamental conflict of interest between promoting gasoline cars, which constitute virtually all of their revenue, and electric cars, which constitute virtually none,” he wrote in the blog. “An even bigger conflict of interest with auto dealers is that they make most of their profit from service, but electric cars require much less service than gasoline cars.”

That’s because there are no spark plugs, oil and fuel filters or tune-ups. One of Tesla’s guiding principles is that it would never make servicing a profit center.

“It does not seem right to me that companies try to make a profit off customers when their product breaks,” he wrote.

Can I get an amen to that, bruthah?

I’m familiar with all the counterarguments made by the car dealers. Bill Wolters, president of the Texas Automobile Dealers Association, was quoted recently as saying that many dealerships in rural Texas would go out of business if factory-owned dealerships were allowed. They might.

And I know car dealerships invest heavily in their facilities; they are pillars of the community; and they support Little League.

That’s all true, but dealers also like to make the additional point that selling cars through them ensures consumer protection — seriously. In all my years of buying cars from dealers, the one thing I have never felt was protected.

Stock could recover

Yale economics professor Fiona Scott Morton, an expert on the nation’s franchise model, wrote in a 2010 research paper: “The net result of all these laws is to raise profits for car dealers … dealers represent an identifiable source of state employment and tax revenue. Thus, states enact laws that extract rent from manufacturers and redistribute it to franchise dealers.”

Given all that, it seems unlikely that Tesla will be granted the right to sell its cars anytime soon in Texas.

By the way, Tesla shares have dropped about 20 percent since early March, but they are still up 40 percent for the year. The company sold 22,000 cars nationwide last year and intends to sell at least twice that number this year, which is another reason the stock might recover some of its losses in the coming months, according to Simon Erickson, a stock analyst at Motley Fool.

“There is nothing fundamentally wrong with this company,” Erickson said. “It is increasing production, building new plants and bringing out lower-priced models.”

Earlier this year, Tesla announced plans to build a $5 billion battery factory in either Texas, New Mexico, Nevada or Arizona and employ some 6,500 workers. The prospect of bringing that many new jobs to Texas perhaps could persuade the Texas Legislature to change the law to Tesla’s advantage.

But alas, the Legislature won’t convene until January, long after the company announces where the plant will be built. I would doubt that Tesla will build a plant in a state where it can’t sell its cars.